Inclusive Heritage Dialogues: Knowledge Exchange and Impact
Increasing visibility and access to a digital community heritage platform in Uganda
As part of an ongoing research funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Global Challenges Research Fund, our School of Social Sciences developed a digital platform that worked to move heritage in Uganda out of the museum, and into the community (OMIC). The platform provided a space where people often excluded (women, people with disabilities, rural populations and young people) from traditional heritage spaces and narratives of the past can safely participate.
In a post-conflict society, allowing people to talk freely about past injustices and violence is an important step towards peace and reconciliation. OMIC builds on this research through engaging people with heritage artefacts through a digital platform to increase access to and dialogue with Ugandan heritage in socially, economically, and geographically marginalised communities.
This project promoted knowledge exchange internationally, engaged policy makers, heritage practitioners and academics to increase the visibility, understanding and durability of the digital platform, and embed it in the work of transitional justice and reparation in Uganda.
Two workshops were held with Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales and Lira University, Uganda bringing together artists, activists, academics, heritage practitioners and policy makers. The workshops offered the chance to learn about the OMIC digital platform and think critically about inclusive heritage practice in different post-colonial national contexts. The Uganda workshop, alongside Uganda Museum in Kampala, aimed to ensure that OMIC is part of national change initiatives, transitional justice curriculum design, and is a core component of work to extend and archive lived experiences of the past for everyone.
These processes, and specifically the OMIC digital platform, generated impact through changes to curatorial practice, changes in the ways people make sense of their past and underpins moves towards peace and justice.
